12.31.05

The pali’s are so much better off without Israel “occupying” them…NOT!!
Hey palis…where are all those peace loving arab neighbors who wanted so much to help you kill innocent Israelis? Where is all their help now? Y’all are pathetic. Can you say cannon fodder? You are nothing to the rest of the arab word but some poor sap they can manipulate into doing their killing for them. You are pathetic.

Palestinian Authority officials on Saturday expressed deep concern over the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, warning that the PA was rapidly losing control.
Some Palestinians compared the situation to what’s happening in Somalia, which is divided by fiefdoms run by clan leaders and warlords.
“The situation in the Palestinian territories is very dangerous because we are no longer in control,” a senior PA official here admitted.
He said the latest cycle of internal violence, including the kidnapping of foreigners, attacks on public buildings and installations, and gun battles between rival gangs and clans, raise serious doubts as to whether next month’s parliamentary elections could be held on time.
Gunmen belonging to the ruling Fatah Party over the weekend issued several warnings to international monitors against arriving in the Palestinian territories to observe the elections.
On Saturday, a group of gunmen stormed a hotel in Nablus and kicked out a number of foreign monitors who had arrived in the city to prepare for the vote. More than 120 monitors from different countries are expected to oversee the vote.
The gunmen, who identified themselves as members of Fatah’s armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, said they were determined to foil the PA’s plan to hold the elections next month. Another Fatah gang in the Gaza Strip said it would prevent foreigners from using the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

VIENNA, Austria – Europe’s second snowstorm this week piled drifts onto railway tracks and roads Friday, slowing buses, trains and trams and stranding motorists. At least two people were killed in mass pileups and a week of icy weather was blamed for dozens of other deaths. In Poland, police said 23 people had frozen to death in recent days, with the last victim found Friday.
Heavy snowfall blocked roads in Poland’s Katowice and Bielsko-Biala area in the south, and blanketed the Baltic coastal city of Gdansk, causing traffic jams and blocking city streets.
Swirling snow and thick fog enveloped most of Italy, and Florence recorded nearly 10 inches of snow _ the most it has seen in two decades. Temperatures in northern Italy dropped as low as -17 Celsius (1.4 Fahrenheit). A 22-year-old homeless man was found dead, apparently of exposure, in Rome’s main railway station Wednesday.
Forty vehicles piled up on icy asphalt on Hungary’s busiest motorway, killing an 8-year-old boy and injuring 11 other people _ one of several mass crashes involving about 60 cars. Police said the accidents closed the interstate M1 connecting Budapest with Vienna.
Another 40-vehicle accident on a highway in neighboring Slovakia killed one person and left 22 injured, the TASR news agency reported.
Blizzards, ice and high winds prompted a nationwide weather warning in the Netherlands, and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, Europe’s fourth- largest, was preparing to shut down some of its runways as thick cloud cover blew in.
Wind-driven snow in Austria piled high drifts onto railway tracks and left motorways treacherous, causing train delays and dozens of traffic accidents.
Utility crews in Austria’s eastern Burgenland province reported that electricity had been restored by early Friday after winds toppled snow-laden trees onto power masts. Chain-equipped fire trucks patrolled roads, pulling dozens of vehicles out of ditches.
Two people died in France, apparently of exposure. Authorities in the western city of Le Mans reported the death of a 52-year-old woman on welfare who slept in a garden shed, and a homeless man was reported dead in Lyon.
With snow falling steadily in France, the national weather service issued road and weather warnings for 70 of the country’s 80 regions. Some highways were closed and temperatures of -26 degrees Celsius (-15 Fahrenheit) were recorded in the eastern town of Mouthe, one of the country’s cold spots. The storms left 110,000 homes without power in northern France and forced delays of up to two hours to international destinations after high-speed trains reduced speeds for safety reasons.
To the east, swirling, drifting snow led Czech authorities to contemplate closing several border crossings into Poland. In the eastern parts of the Czech Republic and in Slovakia, some main roads were shut to traffic, and long lines of vehicles formed on others.
In Berlin, most streets were buried in snow leaving residents picking their way though drifts and snow banks. Trains across much of the country were running irregularly, if at all.
In Switzerland, skies were clear _ and temperatures icy. The mercury plummeted to -35.9 Celsius (-32.6 Fahrenheit) overnight in the town of La Brevine in the Jura mountains for the country’s coldest temperature this year.
In Britain, the mercury moved upward after days of subfreezing weather, and heavy snow turned to rain.
But temperatures as low as -12 Celsius (10.4 Fahrenheit) earlier in the week caused at least one death _ a man in his 40s in the town of West Bromwich. Early Friday afternoon, police supplied hot drinks to dozens of people trapped by drifts on a highway in East Yorkshire in northern England.

More craziness from the Left Coast. Look Folks, either you believe the Bible or you don’t. Apparently these “Christians” don’t.

KIRKLAND — Religious leaders who favor increased protection for gays took their cause to the Eastside Wednesday, directly challenging the Rev. Ken Hutcherson and his supporters.
About 30 people of various faiths gathered at the entrance of Lake Washington High School to support long-stymied legislation that would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The group also met “to counter the very loud voices by a very few fundamentalist religious leaders” who oppose the bill, which was narrowly defeated in the 2005 Legislature and is expected to be reintroduced in the upcoming session, said Robert Jacobs, Northwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Jacobs later said he was referring to Hutcherson — whose Antioch Bible Church meets at the high school — and Rabbi Daniel Lapin of Mercer Island. He is president of Toward Tradition, a national coalition of Jews and Christians.
“They speak so often … as if they represent the word of God,” Jacobs said. But the Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy and laypeople at the news conference showed a different religious perspective, he said.The Rev. Monica Corsaro, ecumenical campus minister at the University of Washington, said it was erroneous to use scripture critical of homosexuality as the basis for withholding support for gay rights.
“We can’t be literalists when it comes to interpreting scripture,” said Corsaro, who also is co-chairwoman of the Religious Coalition for Equality. “It’s not the perfect word of God. It’s heretical to superimpose 21st-century context and values on first-century context and values.”
Hutcherson and Lapin, who did not attend the event, defended the biblical condemnations of homosexual behavior.“It’s hard to get around what the Bible says about the sin of homosexuality,” Hutcherson said. “We believe in an inerrant word of God. That means there’s no mistake. Biblical truth overrides culture and time.”
Lapin said it was “chilling” to imply that “those who wish to echo the words from Leviticus, spoken from Sinai three millennia ago, should be suppressed.”
In April, the state Senate defeated HB1515 by one vote after it had passed the house. State law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, age, religion, marital status and other factors. The bill would have added sexual orientation to the list.
Microsoft Corp. initially supported the bill, then pulled back — before Hutcherson threatened to organize a national boycott of Microsoft products, the software company said. Hutcherson maintained that Microsoft shifted only after he voiced his threat.

12.30.05

How can anyone justify blowing up inoccent children? How sick does one’s mind have to be in order to plan this type of thing? These people are monsters. They are the scum of the earth, completely worthy of only being put down like the dogs they are.

The suicide bomber who killed an Israel Defense Forces officer and two Palestinians at an army checkpoint near Tul Karm yesterday was apparently planning to blow himself up at one of the many children’s events taking place in Tel Aviv during this week’s Hanukkah holiday, army sources said.Had the bomber not been stopped at the checkpoint, the attack would have been far more deadly, said the sources.
Three soldiers and seven Palestinians were wounded in the bombing. Of the soldiers, one was seriously wounded, while the others suffered only light injuries.The slain officer was Lieutenant Ori Binamo, 21, of Nesher. Of the slain Palestinians, one was the taxi driver who was carrying the bomber, and army sources said that the other might have been the bomber’s guide.As of last night, no organization had claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the IDF believes that the Islamic Jihad network in the northern West Bank was responsible. That network, the most lethal one currently operating in the territories, has been responsible for the deaths of 26 Israelis since the start of the year, including all of those killed in suicide bombings inside Israel.Although the IDF had no specific intelligence about yesterday’s attack, it had received information indicating that Islamic Jihad was trying to infiltrate a suicide bomber into Israel. This information, as well as knowing that the many jam-packed Hanukkah events would make an attractive target, moved the army to order stepped-up counterterrorism efforts in the northern West Bank around Tul Karm and Qalqilyah this week, including extra patrols and surprise checkpoints.Binamo’s unit was responsible for one such checkpoint, at the southern entrance to the village of Irtah, near Tul Karm. At 9:15 A.M., a Palestinian taxi approached the checkpoint, and Binamo, the platoon commander, came over to inspect the occupants. Behind him stood the soldier whose job it was to guard him during the inspection.Binamo ordered the three occupants to get out of the taxi, and thought that one, a young man of about 18, seemed suspicious. He therefore ordered the man to remove his overcoat. The Palestinian refused, and Binamo, now more suspicious, took a step or two toward him. At that point the Palestinian blew himself up, killing Binamo and the other two occupants of the taxi instantly. The soldier who was guarding the inspection was seriously injured, and two other soldiers, as well as the occupants of several nearby Palestinian vehicles, were lightly injured. The wounded were evacuated to hospitals for treatment.IDF sappers who inspected the scene said that the bomber apparently wore a suicide belt containing more than 10 kilograms of explosives, packed with nails and iron scraps to make it more deadly. Because the blast occurred in an open area, its effect was mitigated. But had it gone off in an enclosed hall packed with parents and children, as was apparently intended, the effect would have been devastating.

Even in our military, Jesus and Christianity is under attack. Most of us can only pray that God gives us the strength to do what this man is doing.

NORFOLK, Va. Lieutenant Gordon James Klingenschmitt has a new three-year contract as a U-S Navy chaplain, but is continuing the water-only fast he started a week ago Tuesday.Klingenschmitt says he’s been ordered not to pray publicly in the name of Jesus while he’s in uniform — and won’t eat again until he can.
He’s urging President Bush to sign an executive order that would let all military chaplains pray according to their beliefs rather than being restricted to generic prayers.
Klingenschmitt is a chaplain at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.

12.29.05

A pakistani co-worker of mine once told me that Pakistan mean “pure”. I wondered about that and found this description:

PAKISTAN: “THE LAND OF THE PURE”The originator of the word PAKISTAN, Chowdhry Rehmat Ali wrote of his concepts, ” ‘Pakistan’ is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our homelands- ‘Indian’ and ‘Asian’, that is Punjab, Afghania (North- West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Iran, Sindh (including Kachch and Kathiawar), Tukharistan, Afghanistan and BaluchistaN. It means the land of the Paks – the spiritually pure and clean. It symbolizes the religious beliefs and the ethnical stocks of our people; and it stands for all the territorial constituents of our original Fatherland. It has no other origin and no other meaning; and it does not admit of any other interpretation.”

So if Pakistan is supposed to be “pure” islam, the way mohammed wanted it to be, why are Honor Killings so prevalent. If islam is the religion of peace, why is it so violent. Read on…

MULTAN, Pakistan – Nazir Ahmed appears calm and unrepentant as he recounts how he slit the throats of his three young daughters and their 25-year old stepsister to salvage his family’s “honor” — a crime that shocked Pakistan.
The 40-year old laborer, speaking to The Associated Press in police detention as he was being shifted to prison, confessed to just one regret — that he didn’t murder the stepsister’s alleged lover too.
Hundreds of girls and women are murdered by male relatives each year in this conservative Islamic nation, and rights groups said Wednesday such “honor killings” will only stop when authorities get serious about punishing perpetrators.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that in more than half of such cases that make it to court, most end with cash settlements paid by relatives to the victims’ families, although under a law passed last year, the minimum penalty is 10 years, the maximum death by hanging.
Ahmed’s killing spree — witnessed by his wife Rehmat Bibi as she cradled their 3 month-old baby son — happened Friday night at their home in the cotton-growing village of Gago Mandi in eastern Punjab province.It is the latest of more than 260 such honor killings documented by the rights commission, mostly from media reports, during the first 11 months of 2005.
Bibi recounted how she was woken by a shriek as Ahmed put his hand to the mouth of his stepdaughter Muqadas and cut her throat with a machete. Bibi looked helplessly on from the corner of the room as he then killed the three girls — Bano, 8, Sumaira, 7, and Humaira, 4 — pausing between the slayings to brandish the bloodstained knife at his wife, warning her not to intervene or raise alarm.
“I was shivering with fear. I did not know how to save my daughters,” Bibi, sobbing, told AP by phone from the village. “I begged my husband to spare my daughters but he said, ‘If you make a noise, I will kill you.'”
“The whole night the bodies of my daughters lay in front of me,” she said.
The next morning, Ahmed was arrested.
Speaking to AP in the back of police pickup truck late Tuesday as he was shifted to a prison in the city of Multan, Ahmed showed no contrition. Appearing disheveled but composed, he said he killed Muqadas because she had committed adultery, and his daughters because he didn’t want them to do the same when they grew up.
He said he bought a butcher’s knife and a machete after midday prayers on Friday and hid them in the house where he carried out the killings.“I thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated,” he said, his hands cuffed, his face unshaven. “We are poor people and we have nothing else to protect but our honor.”
Despite Ahmed’s contention that Muqadas had committed adultery — a claim made by her husband — the rights commission reported that according to local people, Muqadas had fled her husband because he had abused her and forced her to work in a brick-making factory.
Police have said they do not know the identity or whereabouts of Muqadas’ alleged lover.
Muqadas was Bibi’s daughter by her first marriage to Ahmed’s brother, who died 14 years ago. Ahmed married his brother’s widow, as is customary under Islamic tradition.
“Women are treated as property and those committing crimes against them do not get punished,” said the rights commission’s director, Kamla Hyat. “The steps taken by our government have made no real difference.”
Activists accuse President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a self-styled moderate Muslim, of reluctance to reform outdated Islamized laws that make it difficult to secure convictions in rape, acid attacks and other cases of violence against women. They say police are often reluctant to prosecute, regarding such crimes as family disputes.
Statistics on honor killings are confused and imprecise, but figures from the rights commission’s Web site and its officials show a marked reduction in cases this year: 267 in the first 11 months of 2005, compared with 579 during all of 2004. The Ministry of Women’s Development said it had no reliable figures.
Ijaz Elahi, the ministry’s joint secretary, said the violence was decreasing and that increasing numbers of victims were reporting incidents to police or the media. Laws, including one passed last year to beef up penalties for honor killings, had been toughened, she said.
Police in Multan said they would complete their investigation into Ahmed’s case in the next two weeks and that he faces the death sentence if he is convicted for the killings and terrorizing his neighborhood.Ahmed, who did not resist arrest, was unrepentant.
“I told the police that I am an honorable father and I slaughtered my dishonored daughter and the three other girls,” he said. “I wish that I get a chance to eliminate the boy she ran away with and set his home on fire.”

(All emphasis mine. -ed.)
And there you have it from the RoP (religion of peace) from the LoP (land of the pure).

Looks like this one is going to have to go up the ladder to get overturned.

WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Indianapolis says he won’t reconsider his decision barring the Indiana House of Representatives from opening its sessions with specifically Christian prayers.
Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma had asked U.S.District Judge David Hamilton to reconsider the Nov. 30 ruling, saying it was too vague to enforce.
The state attorney general’s office also has asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to review the decision.
Hamilton ruled that invocations could not mention Jesus Christ or use Christian terms such as savior because they amount to state endorsement of a religion.
Yesterday, Hamilton said if the speaker or others try to evade the injunction, the court will take “appropriate measures” to enforce it.

(AgapePress) – Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA says there was a noticeable increase in persecution of Christians throughout the world in 2005. That international ministry has released a review of persecution against believers worldwide across the last year.
The Open Doors review found that there was an increase in persecution of Christians in such countries as North Korea, Indonesia, and Eritrea. Dr. Moeller says many believers in the U.S. and other free nations are largely unaware of the oppression and hostility faced by fellow believers in many parts of the world. He feels some of the countries most hostile to the Christian faith are simply not “on the radar screens” of many in the church.
For instance, the ministry leader notes, “Eritrea doesn’t make the news very often because it’s not either an ally or an enemy of the United States; but it is a country where millions of people are subjected to a Marxist-influenced government that is drumming up fear in a war with Ethiopia.” For Christians in Eritrea, he explains, the difficulty with the government is “primarily that it refuses to acknowledge any religious expression apart from four permitted religions and denominations.”
Also, in Eritrea 26 pastors and 1,700 evangelical church members are currently imprisoned, and some have been tortured by government military forces, Moeller points out. Meanwhile, in other nations on Open Doors’ watch list, the violence and systematic harassment and maltreatment of Christians either carried out or tolerated by government authorities is similarly egregious.
In North Korea, an estimated 400,000 Christians face daily persecution, including torture in prison camps. That is one reason why that country topped Open Doors’ world watch list of countries where persecution is most severe in 2005. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, more Christians were killed and churches burned, and three Christian women were arrested for running a program for children.

MK Yuval Shteinitz (Likud) says that Egypt’s arms buildup over the past few years has focused on the possibility of future war with Israel.
In a radio interview broadcast on Arutz 7’s Hebrew internet site Tuesday night, Shteinitz, a former professor of political science at Haifa University who chairs the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that Egypt has already become a major supporter of terrorism against Israel.Shteinitz said that Egypt has been allowing terrorist groups operating out of the Gaza district to smuggle missiles into Gaza. Those groups intend to use the missiles against Israeli targets.In his estimation, 90% of the explosives used by the terrorist groups are brought in from Egypt.Shteinitz explains that it is a mistake for Israel to view Syria as its principle enemy, while neglecting the Egyptian threat, primarily because Israel maintains diplomatic relations with Egypt.The committee chairman said that weapons smuggled from Egypt has become so important to the Hamas, “if you would ask them what they would be willing to give up, assistance from Egypt or Syria, they would prefer to give up Syrian, but not Egyptian aid.”The Egyptians, Shteinitz asserts, have kept to the peace agreements signed in 1978 as far as not engaging Israel in outright conflict. But on other levels, such as economic relations or stopping anti-Israel incitement, Egyptian compliance has been lacking.

It’s building steam, Folks. Keep after it. Let NBC know just how opposed you are to this.

NEW YORK — Conservative Christians are gearing up for a holy war of sorts over NBC’s forthcoming show “The Book of Daniel,” airing the first week of 2006.
The American Family Association(AFA), a leading group in the Christian right movement, has called for a boycott of the series about a self-medicating Episcopalian priest whose son is gay, whose daughter deals pot and whose wife is a midday martini-lover.
The program “is an example of that network’s anti-Christian bigotry,” said the AFA in a press release widely distributed on Wednesday. The group claims that the network has received more than 400,000 e-mails complaining about the show. (empahsis mine. -ed.)

NBC executives could not immediately be reached to confirm that statistic or respond to the AFA’s threat of a boycott and characterization of “The Book of Daniel.”
A day earlier, “Book of Daniel” star Aidan Quinn — who plays the Rev. Daniel Webster — called the series “a pretty down-the-middle, wholesome show.”
“I honestly don’t think it’s going to be nearly as controversial as some people may now be afraid of,” Quinn told The Associated Press. “It just has the courage to deal with some of the real issues that go in on people’s lives.”
Webster is shown having visions of and conversations with Jesus Christ in the flesh and has such a bizarro extended family that his priesthood and parish are in jeopardy of forging a relationship with the mafia.
“I’m an Episcopalian priest who struggles with a little self-medication problem, and I have a 23-year-old son who’s gay, and a 16-year-old daughter who’s caught dealing pot, and another son who’s jumping on every high school girl he sees, and a wife who’s very loving but also likes her martinis,” Quinn told the AP.
“I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘Hey, that sounds like my family.'”
The AFA begs to differ, blasting NBC and the show.
“The decision by NBC to air the series reflects the anti-Christian bias which exists at the highest levels of the network,” AFA chairman Donald Wildmon said in the press release. “Christian-bashing is in style at NBC.”
“The Book of Daniel” premieres Jan. 6 at 9 p.m. EST with two back-to-back episodes, before moving to its regular 10 p.m. slot the following week.

12.28.05

Please support the organizations you see in my blog post who oppose the ACLU.

An attorney who once worked for the American Civil Liberties Union has slammed the organization for “perverting” federal law by successfully threatening government officials into getting rid of public expressions of religion.
Rees Lloyd made the comments in an online podcast hosted by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., in which the two discuss the congressman’s legislation, the Public Expression of Religion Act, or PERA (H.R.2679). The bill would prohibit judges in civil suits involving the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause from awarding attorney’s fees to those offended by religious symbols or actions in the public square – such as a Ten Commandments display in a courthouse or a cross on a county seal.
Lloyd, a California civil-rights attorney, is an officer with the American Legion who wrote a resolution passed by the national organization supporting Hostettler’s bill.As WorldNetDaily reported, Hostettler’s proposal would amend the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorney’s fee in religious establishment cases, but not in other civil rights filings. This would prevent local governments from having to use taxpayer funds to pay the ACLU or similar organization when a case is lost, and also would protect elected officials from having to pay fees from their own pockets.
In the podcast, Hostettler explains that the 1976 statute was meant to help “the little guy” who is going up against a governmental entity so he won’t be impoverished when working to guarantee the liberty to express or practice his faith. But, says the lawmaker, the ACLU has used the law to enrich itself at the expense of taxpayers and as a means to silence public officials who don’t want to be sued personally.
Hostettler says some organizations have created a new civil liberty – a right to be protected “from religion, which is found nowhere in the Constitution, nowhere in the Bill of Rights.” The Indiana congressman blames “a very select group” for “perverting” the original statute, including the ACLU, People for the American Way and Americans United for the Separate of Church and State.
“They use this statute to extort behavior out of individuals,” the congressman said, citing the Indiana Civil Liberties Union threatening local educators. The group sent a letter to officials saying they would be sued and be forced to pay attorney’s fees should any graduation prayers be offered at commencement ceremonies. The threat sent the message, Hostettler said, that individuals tied to school districts could be impoverished personally.
Said the lawmaker: “When officials see the potential threat of a lawsuit, they stop allowing children to write papers for English class – when they’re asked to write about the most important person in their life and they decide to write about Jesus Christ.”
Hostettler’s bill would allow cases to move through the courts without public officials worrying about being held personally liable for thousands in attorneys fees.
“Let’s let these cases go forward; let’s let the courts decide what’s constitutional and what’s not, and let’s not leave it up to the ACLU,” he said.
Hostettler explained that while government entities can pay attorney’s fees charged to individual elected officials, they don’t legally have to, which puts the politicians on the hook.
Saying most taxpayers are in favor of allowing public religious expression, the congressman noted the irony of those same taxpayers being forced to pay the ACLU to sue their local governments.
“The current threat to public officials is very real; it’s ongoing,” Hostettler stated. “It’s been the case for several years that public officials are scared to death to suggest any type of public recognition of our Christian roots. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed in Washington, D.C.”
PERA would prohibit damages, court fees and attorney’s fees from going to plaintiffs in establishment-clause suits while keeping the original purpose of the civil-rights law, Hstettler says, to provide a means for those whose religious liberties have been blocked to find justice.
The congressman wonders why the ACLU would oppose his legislation since it still provides for “injunctive relief” – e.g., a court can rule in the ACLU’s favor and force the removal of a Ten Commandments display – but takes out the monetary incentive for lawsuits.
“If they’re not out for the money but are really out to preserve our civil liberties … then the ACLU should not be opposing my bill,” Hostettler commented.
Hostettler mentioned the case of Judge Roy Moore in Alabama, whose colleagues on the state Supreme Court ordered the removal of a Ten Commandments display because, the congressman says, they didn’t want the state’s taxpayers to have to pay anymore than they did – $500,000 – to the ACLU as a result of the case.

Would He be pleased with the progress made on His behalf in keeping Christmas alive and well with each victory gained in overcoming the ACLU and the Christmas Grinches?
As I finished my purchase at a Wal-Mart store the cashier associate smilingly said to me, “Merry Christmas.” I was shocked by this since I had read all the news articles on Wal-Mart’s choice of greeting (Happy Holidays) this Christmas season. I replied to her, “Thank you for saying that and Merry Christmas to you too.”
She commented further, “Well, that is the reason we have this shopping season. If it weren’t for Christmas there would be no reason to doing all this.” I agreed with her.
Without Christmas there would be no reason to be out spending a fortune on gifts for everyone from grandma to the family dog. Stores would not have a year end rush to getting rich or breaking even or whatever excuse they have for making more money to keep going another year.
I left the store pleased that the efforts by Christians and friends of Christians were beginning to pay off. People were no longer afraid to stand up and say “Merry Christmas.”
At a different store I was again shocked and surprised to see a group of employees parading around the store singing Christmas carols. Yup, that’s right. Christmas carols. Right out there in front of all the customers shopping for CHRISTMAS.
Those employees didn’t seem to have a problem singing about Christmas and neither did the customers shopping that night. It was something magic, something good. They sang a variety of Christmas songs…secular and religious as well. No one seemed to mind and no one protested.
There’s nothing wrong with the endless singing of “Jingle Bells” or “White Christmas” or the many other secular Christmas songs. Christian songs are important too, and need to be part of the public Christmas.
After all, all the Christian carols are centuries old – Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, O Come, All Ye Faithful, O Holy Night. This was good to hear in a public place.
I smiled inside. I smiled outside as I thought of all the people all over America who took a stand for Jesus Christ and His Holy Day and fought against the politically correct crowd. I thank God many believers are not silent anymore. We can’t let those against Jesus Christ take away our right to worship Him just because it may be offensive to someone else. We have to stop being ridiculous in our thinking that we don’t want to offend this one or that one.
The whole reason for Christmas is “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Of course, that is also the very reason why so many are against Christmas as well. Without Christ there is no Christmas.
It matters not the actual date of His birth whether it was December or some other time of the year. What matters is He came. He was born. For without His birth there is no death and no resurrection and therefore no salvation. But the very reason that He was born is what makes the world hate Christmas. So I am rejoicing this year that believers all over America are standing up and shouting out for Christmas.
Keep shouting, for Christ is worth shouting about. His love, His promises, His salvation, His blessings, are all gifts given by God the Father to us in the form of the most blessed Gift…His Son.

We hear quite often how our school systems refuse to allow any semblance of Christianity to be taught in the schools, but in California, they can teach your child how to be a muslim. This is very worrisome that a court can mandate this type of thing and be so obviously hypocritical. The liberal, activist courts are not even trying to hide themselves anymore. Read below about the continuing struggle to have this wrong made right.

(AgapePress) – A federal appeals court is being asked to reconsider its ruling that allows public schools to teach junior high students how to “become Muslims.” The Thomas More Law Center, a national public-interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is asking the entire Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule on what can be done in public schools with regard to teaching Islam and other religions.
Several parents sued California’s Byron Union School District for requiring their 7th-grade children to participate in a three-week class activity in which they not only had to study important Islamic figures and wear traditional Muslim attire, but were also required to observe the “five pillars” of the Islamic faith, adopt Muslim names, recite a portion of a Muslim prayer, and even stage their own “jihad” or “holy war.” The plaintiffs’ attorney, the Thomas More Law Center’s Ed White, believes the school district violated the parents’ and children’s constitutional rights to free exercise of religion.
Earlier, White had asked a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit to overturn a previous San Francisco federal district court’s ruling that the Byron Union School District did not violate the U.S. Constitution. However, the Ninth Circuit panel of judges upheld the lower court’s determination in a brief, unpublished memorandum decision.
In that ruling, however, the panel overlooked and failed to rule on the plaintiff’s claims that their free exercise and parental rights had been violated. The Thomas More Law Center has asked the three-judge panel to reconsider their decision and to issue a ruling on the claims not previously addressed. The Law Center has also asked all 24 active judges on the Ninth Circuit to consider and rule on the case.
White says the Byron Union School District never informed the parents about an exercise that would be grading their children on how well they observed the tenets of Islam. In fact, he points out, “The parents were never told that there was even a way to opt their child out of such an activity.”
Actually, the only way the parents found out about the school’s Islamic exercise, the attorney points out, was virtually by accident. He says a Byron Union District mom was “looking through her son’s book bag and asked, ‘Hey, what’s all this stuff?’ and the kid said, ‘Oh, we’re doing this in school now.’ So the parents objected, but it was after the class [activity] was over.”
So it was after the fact that parents learned how, for three weeks in 2001, their children were told they would “become Muslims” and had worn identification tags bearing their new Muslim names along with the Star and Crescent Moon symbols of Islam. The children received materials telling them to “Remember Allah always so that you may prosper,” and they made banners to hang in the classroom, inscribing them with the Basmala, a phrase from the Koran used in Muslim prayers that is translated, “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.”
Richard Thompson, chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, was disappointed by the San Francisco district court’s ruling and the Ninth Circuit panel’s decision to uphold it. He commented that if students had been instructed on Christianity in the same manner as they were on Islam in this case, the court would most likely have found a constitutional violation.
Ed White agrees. The parents’ lawyer says the courts should not be allowing this apparent double standard on the teaching of religion in public schools. When the Byron Union School District’s teachers taught the children other religions in the seventh grade,” he asserts, “they didn’t go into any of these activities. When they taught Buddhism or Christianity, they didn’t engage in these simulations [of Islamic observances]. They didn’t have to practice the faith, memorize various parts of the Bible, et cetera.”
White has filed a petition for a rehearing of the case before the entire Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Chief counsel Richard Thompson says the appellate court needs to clarify in a published opinion just how far public schools can go in teaching about religion.

The pali’s just can’t figure out why life is not so good these days. I think these people will always be in the dark.When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 New International Version (NIV)

JERUSALEM – An article published Sunday by WorldNetDaily quoting Bethlehem residents as saying local Muslim persecution prompted tens of thousands of Christians to flee the city is “all lies” and the “kind of American reporting [that] is the real reason for any rift between Muslims and Christians,” a major Palestinian newspaper stated yesterday, claiming inter-religious relations in Bethlehem “have never been better.”
“There is no problem between Christians and Muslims in Bethlehem, but any problem that may exist is because of this kind of article in the American media,” stated a piece in the Al Manar Palestinian daily.
The Palestinian paper went on to quote several sections of WND’s article, “Muslim grinches steal Bethlehem Christmas,” calling the report “all lies. This is an effort to separate Christians and Muslims in Bethlehem.”
WND reported many Christians in Bethlehem say they face constant Muslim hostility, prompting the Christian population to decline from 90 percent of the city to the current demographic of less than 25 percent. The drastic decline started in 1995, the year the Palestinian Authority took control of Bethlehem.
The WND article came after world leaders took the occasion of Bethlehem’s Christmas Eve Mass to blame Israel’s recently constructed security fence in the area for Christian woes, and followed scores of American media reports about this past weekend’s festivities that seemed to find Israel’s fence mostly at fault for low tourist turnout at Christmas celebrations and the lower Christian population figures.
Christmas celebrations this year attracted about 30,000 tourists – 10,000 more than last year but down from an average of 150,000 in 1994.
“All this talk about Israel driving Christians out and causing pain is nonsense,” a Bethlehem Christian community leader told WND this past weekend. “You want to know what is at play here, just come throughout the year and see the intimidation from the Muslims. They have burned down our stores, built mosques in front of our churches, stole our real estate and took away our rights. Women have been raped and abducted. So don’t tell me about Israel. It’s the Muslims.”
The Bethlehem leader, like many Christians on the streets of the city, would not provide his name for publication for fear of retaliation.
One religious novelty-store owner cited examples of Muslim gangs defacing Christian property, the PA replacing Christian leaders on public councils with Muslims and armed Palestinian factions stirring tensions. One such incident was last week’s storming of Bethlehem’s City Hall, across the street from the Church of the Nativity, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, by gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group.
But Al Manar claimed: “Relations between Christians and Muslims in Bethlehem have never been better. Even though Muslims now compose the vast majority of Bethlehem, the PA still allows the Christians to hold 7 out of 13 municipality seats.”
The Bethlehem Christian store owner, though, disagreed.
“We are harassed but you wouldn’t know the truth. No one says anything publicly about the Muslims.”

Read the rest here.
See the original article here.
See my original post here.

Things are heating up in Israel again. Can you see that no matter what concessions Israel makes to the islamofacist, it is never enough. The only thing that will appease the arab word is the complete destruction of Israel.

JERUSALEM — Israeli jets attacked a Palestinian militant group’s training base in southern Lebanon early Wednesday, hours after an Israeli border town was hit by rocket fire, the military said.
The base located five miles south of Beirut is operated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a small group that has been waging a decades long fight against the Jewish state.
“This is in response to the firing of projectile rockets last night toward Israeli communities,” the military said.
It said it views such attacks with “extreme severity” and holds Lebanon responsible.

OK, they’re kidding right? They think that getting rid of gas cans is going to stop riots on New Years eve? Hello!! Have the French ever thought about addressing the real problem. You know, the fact that radical islam has moved into the neighborhood…

Fears of a new outbreak of street violence in France have prompted many areas to ban the sale of petrol in cans.
Setting fire to cars on New Year’s Eve has become a tradition among lawless youths on estates with large immigrant populations in the Parisian suburbs and Strasbourg.
The wave of rioting that swept the country for three weeks from the end of October has led to widespread concern that troublemakers may try to stage a show of strength this weekend.
The bans affect most areas around Paris and several provincial cities that suffered during the earlier riots. Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, insisted that November’s state of emergency would not be lifted at New Year.
This allows local administrators to impose curfews and other restrictions, although most take the view that tensions would be heightened by putting the measures into effect.
The petrol ban is separate from the emergency powers. Mr Sarkozy has dismissed criticism of his policies by Left-wing politicians and sport and entertainment figures.
The former tennis player Yannick Noah, born in France of Cameroonian and French parents, said in a controversially censored magazine interview that he would leave the country if Mr Sarkozy succeeded in his ambition of becoming president.
Other personalities who accuse the minister of inflaming opinion in the suburbs include Lilian Thuram, the most-capped player in France’s football squad, the film director Luc Besson and the rapper Joey Starr.
Mr Sarkozy has been roundly condemned for dismissing troublemakers as racaille, meaning rabble but often translated – and understood – as scum.
But in an interview, he said the word was not in his normal vocabulary but was used by a woman of North African origin begging him to rid her estate in Argenteuil, north of Paris, of criminals. He replied: “Yes madam, trust me, we will get rid of this rabble.”
Mr Sarkozy said that he probably had a much better idea of life on the estates than Thuram, who had not lived on one for some time but enjoyed the life of a successful, well-paid athlete in Italy.
“He is a great footballer,” Mr Sarkozy said, “but that does not make him an intellectual guru.”
Mr Sarkozy defended his handling of the riots, saying that nothing he had said or done during the unrest, or in 30 years in politics, was contrary to French republican principles.
The riots had been controlled by effective policing and had not been accompanied by anything like the bloodshed experienced abroad.
Repeating claims made in an interview on the Arabic television channel al-Jazeera, he also said no politician in France had fought harder against racial discrimination.
Mr Sarkozy described attempts by radicals to discredit him by circulating posters showing his face and the words “Vote Le Pen” – a reference to the far-Right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen – as smacking of fascist tactics.

Well, the very fact that al-jazera is for Mr. Sarkozy, says a lot right there. Of course his main critics are athletes and entertainers, who else. Sounds like they still can’t get it together over there and address the real problem…Socialism. Just doesn’t work, folks. Keep in mind that our democratic party here wants us to be just like them. Think about it.

12.27.05

This is worse then I thought. Check out the story line for NBC’s “The Book of Daniel”

(CNSNews.com) – A conservative advocacy group is urging its supporters to protest an upcoming NBC television series that portrays a “completely dysfunctional family” as models of the Christian faith.NBC’s “The Book of Daniel” is scheduled to premiere on Jan. 6, and even before the public sees it, the American Family Association is complaining about the series.The main character, Daniel Webster, “is a drug-addicted Episcopal priest whose wife depends heavily on her mid-day martinis,” the AFA said in a message to its supporters.”Webster regularly sees and talks with a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus,” AFA said, adding that the Webster family also includes “a 23-year-old homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old daughter who is a drug dealer, and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop’s daughter. At the office, his (Webster’s) lesbian secretary is sleeping with his sister-in-law.”
AFA noted that the series is written by Jack Kenny, a practicing homosexual who describes himself as being “in Catholic recovery,” and who is quoted as saying that he doesn’t know if “all the myth surrounding him (Jesus) is true.” Various media reports have noted the adult nature of the program, which is expected to air in the 10 p.m. time slot.According to the American Family Association, NBC considers “The Book of Daniel” a positive portrayal of Christ and Christians. On its website, NBC describes the Reverend Daniel Webster as “an unconventional Episcopalian minister who not only believes in Jesus — he actually sees him and discusses life with him. Webster is challenged on many levels as he struggles to be a good husband, father and minister, while trying to control a nagging addiction to prescription painkillers, and an often rocky relationship with the church hierarchy…”NBC says the Jesus character’s “frequent chats with Daniel serve to remind him of his strengths and weaknesses.”In a press release issued Tuesday, AFA urged concerned citizens to call their local NBC affiliate and ask that the program not be aired. AFA is also urging Christians to spread the word about the series through announcements from the pulpit and in church bulletins and newsletters.